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What I'm Watching: The Bachelorette

Chad, left, seen with contestants Alex and Christian on The Bachelorette, is a lone hyena who doesn't play well with the other men, writes Johanna Schneller.
(Rick Rowell / ABC)

By Johanna SchnellerSpecial to the Star

Mon., June 6, 2016

The Show:The Bachelorette, Season 12, Episode 2

The Moment: The villain

The guys are ticked because veiny Chad (who performs pull-ups with a suitcase stuffed with protein powder jugs dangling from his weight belt) snuck outside and stole a private moment with Bachelorette JoJo. They surround him at the buffet.

“You don’t want the meat on the stick?” he taunts them. “It’s delicious.”

As the others politely confront him, Chad throws slices of meat into his mouth, as if he’s training a hyena and he’s the hyena. Indeed, he eats so aggressively (“I didn’t have my protein shake today”) that the others can’t stop discussing it.

Reality shows are micro-societies. Episodes are constructed to teach us the rules of social behaviour. This one could be called Building the Villain. Chad is Bad because he breaks a key societal rule: innate male hierarchy.

As playgrounds prove, boys establish hierarchy quickly. Once they do, anyone can play, as long as they stick to their position. They’re a team, even though they’re competing. That’s called civilization.

Chad doesn’t play. He scorns. He’s a lone hyena. The others don’t want him to be Alpha Male. But he grabs the role and flaunts his defiance: Those pull-ups! That meat-eating! You can practically hear the show’s producers in the control room high-fiving one another.

The time bomb is set. Now we count down to the explosion.

The Bachelorette airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on City. Read weekly recaps at thestar.com/television . Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop-culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.

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